It Is An Embarrassment That The NBA-Cum-Supreme Court Do Not Have A Uniform Database Of Lawyers — John Aikpokpo Martins

Dear colleagues, there is no much to say again by me with respect to what l intend to bring to the table as your elected 2nd Vice President. The campaign is effectively over as of today, as I have said all I intend to contribute and bring to the Association when elected. What is now left is for the voters to exercise their right to choose with respect to the candidates, the offices and their promises. However, I must say that there was an issue that we all took for granted, as no one spoke on it. It is the issue of our database of members, which the present verification exercise has shamefully thrown up. It is now confirmed beyond all doubts that we have multiple databases ie, the stamp database, the practising fees database, the verified lawyers database, the annual conference database and the Supreme Court roll itself. I say with all sense of responsibility that it is an embarrassment that the NBA-cum-Supreme Court do not have a reliable, single, and uniform database of lawyers in Nigeria that can be relied upon to conduct elections or used for any other purpose, without the biennial scramble to collate voters register with the attendant waste of millions of naira to contract inefficient and untrustworthy IT companies. WHAT we are passing through presently over this verification exercise is a monumental embarrassment and an unforced injury on the dignity of the Association. It is time to do an introspection, and there is no better time than now. It is time to promote competence above sentiments; time to promote dynamism over conservatism; time to do things refreshingly different rather than to insist on the old ways of stagnation; time to do things seamlessly. Let’s vote for proven achievers and trailblazers; PLEASE, LET’S RESET THE NBA to meet with the challenges of modernity. If we were in doubt before of that need, this verification exercise has cleared all doubts. The time is ripe, and the time is now. We ought to vow that never again should the NBA be this embarrassed, and I John Aikpokpo-Martins hereby vow that when elected as a national officer, and as the 2nd Vice President, that I shall do all within my powers to move the National Officers to cause to be harmonised, all official databases of lawyers in Nigeria into one uniform database. That there shall never be a repeat of this kind of traumatic verification of voters again during elections in the Association. I further vow that when elected as the 2nd Vice President, a unified uniform database of lawyers that can be used for all purposes including elections, shall and must be done and presented to the Association not later than at the Annual General Meeting of the Association in August, 2019. If you elect me, and we fail to deliver this simple task within this timeline above stated, then the National officers including myself deserve to be impeached. Like I stated earlier, my campaign is technically over. I have over the course of the past weeks articulated my manifesto, programs and thought process that I intend to contribute when elected. The choice is now yours, but I urge you most passionately to vote for me as your next 2nd Vice President, if for any other reason, but for the fact that I am simply the best of the candidates vying for that office for now. My name is JOHN AIKPOKPO-MARTINS, am running for the office of the 2nd Vice President. Please vote for me; my passion is powered by vision]]>